NEW YORK - President Asif Ali Zardari has conferred Hilal-e-Imtiaz on Pakistan UN Ambassador Masood Khan in recognition of his dedicated services, it was announced Friday.
The announcement about the award was made by an official of the Pakistan Mission to the UN at a largely attended reception hosted by the Pakistani envoy in honour of Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
The secretary-general congratulated Ambassador Masood Khan on the recognition he had received from the Government of Pakistan, saying the award was well-deserved.
He called Masood Khan a ‘good communicator’ and a ‘great leader of the diplomatic community here’. Ban also lauded as ‘outstanding’ Pakistan’s presidency of the Security Council in January, noting with appreciation the holding of debates on critical themes - counter-terrorism and peacekeeping.
He said he had very useful talks with Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar, who presided over the counter-terrorism debate and Foreign Secretary Jalil Abbas Jilani, who chaired the session on peacekeeping.
Earlier, Masood Khan paid tributes to Ban Ki-moon’s leadership of the United Nations, saying he symbolised multilateral diplomacy. He especially thanked him for visiting Pakistan in 2010 when the country was hit by devastating floods.
He also appreciated Ban’s gesture of writing a personal note to Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani education activist who was shot by a Taliban militant and is now receiving treatment in England.
The reception was to be held last week but had to be postponed because of a major snowstorm.
Attending the reception were heads of diplomatic missions accredited to the United Nations, senior UN officials and members of the UN corps of correspondents.